


Yesterday's War Can Wait Until Tomorrow

by Screeb



Category: The Sojourn (Audio Drama)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:41:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26823814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Screeb/pseuds/Screeb
Summary: Sometimes your boss convinces you to let loose, to relax so you don't make a mistake. Sometimes you relax more than you meant to. A minor extension of season 1, episode 3, "Yesterday's War".
Relationships: Elizabeth Ancelet/Cassandra Farren
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Yesterday's War Can Wait Until Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> No one else was starting the tag, so I did it. Thanks to the members of the official Sojourn Discord for fueling my need for Cass/Elizabeth fic. No editing, we die like men.

Surprising everyone, including herself, this afternoon had been mostly quiet—aside from an incident with some Unioners down below, but that probably wasn’t worth too much worry. Naturally, though, this couldn’t last. The doorbell beeped. Cass sighed quietly and leaned back in her office seat. “Come in,” she said. It was probably Meds, coming to complain about the Unioners again.

The door slid open and Elizabeth strolled in with the air and swagger of a pirate who should have been holding a bottle of rum in each hand.

Cass wasn’t sure this was better. She decided to just power off her monitor for now—there was a good chance she wasn’t getting more work done tonight.

“I bring joyous news!” Elizabeth strode across the office and plopped down in the chair across from Cass. “The bar on deck four is _finally_ open. Extra half-rations on drinks for the first day.” 

There was something in her voice that said this wasn’t a random fact. Cass held up her hands and shook her head. “Oh, no, no, I do _not_ have time for that.”

“Why, what are you doing?” Was that disappointment in Elizabeth’s voice, or was Cass making that up? “You look awful.” 

“Oh, thanks very much.” Cass flipped through a couple sheets of paper, various reports that had already piled up on her desk; she also snuck a glance at her reflection in the dark monitor. Yeah, okay, she looked pretty bad, she had to admit. “I’m working. Reviewing perimeter reports, optimizing the duty shifts, and scheduling inventory checks.”

Elizabeth frowned and replied in the _most_ monotone voice possible; “Woah, slow down there, there’s only so much excitement I can take.”

“It’s _important_ ,” Cass shot back. “I’m responsible for protecting this fleet now. And if we run into another one of those ships, we should be as ready as possible.”

“And may I say,” Elizabeth started, in what Cass had already identified as her patented _‘I’m about to win this argument’_ voice, “that you have been doing a _fantastic_ job. In fact, _you_ deserve… a drink. Let’s go.” That wasn’t a request. Cass usually wouldn’t have cared. But… it _was_ Elizabeth–

No. There was work to be done. Cass sighed. “I’ll catch up with you later. I just need another hour or so.”

“I was afraid you’d say that,” Elizabeth said, resigned. Cass turned back to her computer, but before she could even turn the screen on, Elizabeth had shoved a tablet in her face. “That’s why I brought this.” Elizabeth cleared her throat. “Captain Cassandra Farren, may I draw your attention to Article 14 Section B of the Centrum Defence Force Personnel manual?”

Cass sighed. She wasn’t going to win this fight.

“Should the supervising officer in command of a vessel or facility conclude that a member of his or her staff is suffering from extreme stress or physical exhaustion, they are both permitted, and _encouraged_ to remove the individual in question from active duty for a mandatory period of rest and recreation.” She pulled the tablet away and turned it off. “You’ll thank me for it later. Tired people make mistakes.”

A dagger of ice shot its way through Cass’s heart. Her voice sank slightly and she gave a small nod. “Yeah. They do.” She sighed. “Okay fine. You’ve convinced me. Only a _couple_ of drinks, though. No more than that!” 

“Eh, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Elizabeth stood and moved for the door. Cass vacated her own chair and darted to catch up. 

“You realize, of course, that neither of us are actually _in_ the CDF?” Cass pointed out. “Legally, if I wanted to keep working, you couldn’t have stopped me.”

Elizabeth smirked. “You keep telling yourself that.”

* * *

“Hey, speak of the devil!” Croft raised his hand in greeting as the pair walked into the bar. Cass could only assume Lieutenant Ravi had been talking about one of them. “I see you finally managed to drag yourself away from work!”

“I had help.” Cass shrugged.

“She told me she wanted to get as _drunk_ as _possible_ ,” Elizabeth said with a grin.

“Now, hang on--”

Croft couldn’t help but grin back. “Say no more.” He turned vaguely toward the bar, and called for another round from the bartender.

Cass felt this was going to be a long night. And, even more unfortunately, that she was going to _enjoy_ it.

* * *

Quite some—and about six drinks more than Cass had _ever_ intended to have tonight—Meds waited for a quiet moment to lean over to Cass. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you look like you’re enjoying yourself.”

Cass pondered that for a moment. “You know, I think I might be."

“Well, I’m glad the boss managed to drag you down here.” Meds laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you _drunk_ before.”

Cass scoffed incredulously. “I am not _drunk_ ,” she lied. “But… Yeah, I’m glad too.” Her eyes drifted over to where Elizabeth was currently arm wrestling Croft. Cass fleetingly _wished_ she could be as laid back as those two. Maybe she should dye her hair, it sure looked good on Liz-- _Elizabeth--no, Director Ancelet. For god’s sakes, Cass, she’s your_ **_C/O_ ** _._

Meds, for her part, seemed not to take notice. “I’ll have to ask Elizabeth for some tips. I’ve been trying to get you to do something like this for _four years_.”

Cass laughed. “You did your best.”

Across the room, Elizabeth slammed Croft’s hand down onto the table, and issued a cheer that could be heard _clearly_ over the sounds of the bar. Damn, she had some lungs. After a couple of moments, she snatched up her drink (which Croft had evidently just paid for), and broke away to move towards Cass and Meds.

Meds stood as well. “Well, I think _I’m_ going to go make sure Croft doesn’t get himself into any trouble, and leave _you_ in the Director’s very capable hands.”   
  
Cass blinked as Meds walked off. If Cass were any less drunk, she’d have suspected Meds was up to something.

Fortunately for Meds, Cass was _definitely_ drunk.

A couple of moments later, Elizabeth dropped into the seat Meds had just vacated. “Well, it’s no Firewatch brew, but I guess if it gets you drunk…” She swirled her drink and took a sip. Cass couldn’t help but watch. Was she blind or was it the lighting in here? She hadn’t noticed Elizabeth’s lipstick, how it was the same color as her hair. It worked for her. It worked really, _really_ well–

“You alright, Cass?”

Cass blinked, shook her head as if trying to reorient herself, and forced herself to focus on the moment. “Yeah, yeah I’m--I’m fine. Never been better, actually.” That heat in her face was the alcohol, right?

Elizabeth shrugged and moved on. “Tell you what, I think I’ve got an old bottle of Firewatch Whiskey back in my quarters. Better than _this_ crap. Let’s go get it. You look like you’ve had enough loud, rowdy people and music anyways.”

Yeah, that heat in her face was _definitely_ the alcohol. Nothing else. Cass, ever professional, would have said _no_ immediately. Liz-- _dammit,_ **_Elizabeth_ ** _\--_ was her commanding officer. Drinking together like this was unusual enough, at least for straightlaced ol’ Cassandra Farren. But Cass was _drunk_ , and Elizabeth was _also_ unusual. And very pretty-- _for fuck’s sake, Cassandra, get it together._

She opened her mouth to say no. “Sure. Why not?”

* * *

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur when Cass woke the next morning. Damn, Firewatch Whiskey _does_ hit hard. Her head was throbbing like it was locked in a cargo drone’s claws, while said drone was being told to dance to some god forsaken electronic-computer-generated bullshit someone would call music.

To put it simply, this was the worst hangover she’d had… Since the war, probably.

She cracked her eyes open. Three things were immediately apparent, with any amount of looking around:

One: These were not her quarters.

Two: There was a redhead laying next to her.

Three: Both of them were covered only by the bedsheets.

Cass sighed quietly. _This_ was why she didn’t get drunk. She liked to at least _try_ to maintain a modicum of professionalism, but _drunk_ Cass had _no_ such inhibitions.

The woman next to her stirred. Cass _almost_ hoped it wasn’t who she thought it was–

“Mornin’, _captain,_ ” Elizabeth mumbled.

“...Morning…” Cass rubbed her hands across her face.

“You’re about to run out on me without even stopping for coffee, aren’t you?”

“I’d like to.”

“Relax, Cass. I won’t mention it if you don’t. We got drunk, things happened--that’s life, you know? Besides, I think you’ve fulfilled your _mandatory period of rest and recreation_.”

“I try not to let it happen to _me_. This was unprofessional, I shouldn’t have let it go this far--” Cass pulled the sheet tighter around herself and sat up, hoping she’d had the presence of mind to keep her clothes all in a tight bunch--no, no such luck. She scooted out of the bed and quickly started gathering her uniform.

Elizabeth sighed. She definitely sounded… disappointed? “Alright. Do what you need. I’ll see you on the command deck.”

Cass felt a pang of guilt. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll--I’ll see you there.”

Damn, Cass wished she hadn’t skipped the coffee. How late had she stayed up? She felt like she was going to fall asleep at any second. 

But she _really_ hadn’t had time. She was just barely going to make it to her shift on time. She’d had to practically _sprint_ to the _Guin_ just to get changed in time, to say nothing of having _breakfast_ –

The door to the command deck slid open. “Morning everyone,” she said, completely professional. And definitely not avoiding Elizabeth's gaze.

Elizabeth spun to face her. “Captain Farren, you are almost ninety seconds late for your shift. I was about to dispatch search and rescue–”

“I’ll make it up at the end of my shift.” She still didn't make eye contact with Elizabeth. _Fuck, she wasn’t going to make this easy, was she?_

“I… wish I could tell if you were joking.” Elizabeth looked both confused, and concerned. Or maybe Cass was making that up. Either way, she felt another pang of guilt.

 _You know what? Fuck it. It’s not like we can get much_ more _unprofessional at this point_.

Cass waited until no one else was looking, and gave Elizabeth a sly wink. Elizabeth, in turn, gave her a look that clearly said _wait, did you just make a joke, or are we back to flirting?_

Cass pulled her tablet free from her bag, and shot a message over to Liz. [Let’s talk later.]

“Perimeter report just came in, nothing new–”

And that’s when their day got very, very busy. Later would have to wait even longer.

**Author's Note:**

> I hereby christen this fandom tag gay, in the name of the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands. And also me. And all of the gay Cassandras I know (which is a shockingly high number).


End file.
